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I was undecided about my rating for Penhallow, but finally decided to rate based on the fact this is an excellent, but flawed book.

Now, this isn't what I felt the first couple of times I read it! This is a hard world to visit, full of unlikeable characters. Only Aunt Clara & Clifford are at all sympathetic. The aging & bedridden Penhallow rules his family with a rod of iron. Only his daughter Char is free & that is because a legacy as made her financially independent. Most of Penhallow's sons are violent & to these 21st century eyes it is baffling that in this corner of Heyerland that violence & the fathering of illegitimate children is less to be despised than homosexuality.

I was surprised on this reading to find it clear that both Aubrey & Char are gay! No wonder my parents didn't mind me reading adult books when I was a nipper! They could probably hear the whooshing sounds of things going right over my head!

The Big Twist has a lot of impact & makes a great read, but I don't buy it. Likewise I'm not altogether satisfied with the ambitious servant Loveday's character development.

I wouldn't read this one of you are looking for the usual Heyer comfort read. I certainly wouldn't make it my first Heyer mystery. It has a lot more in common with Barren Corn or Helen. (two of Heyer's gloomy 'contemporary' novels)

& just to blast a popular Heyer myth - I had a good talk with GH's biographer Jennifer Kloester at the Heyer conference in Sydney last year. She is adamant that contrary to what many of the Heyer family & friends have said, GH didn't write this novel as a contract breaker - she was actually very proud of it.

Read information about the author

Georgette Heyer was a prolific historical romance and detective fiction novelist. Her writing career began in 1921, when she turned a story for her younger brother into the novel The Black Moth.

In 1925 she married George Ronald Rougier, a mining engineer, and he often provided basic plot outlines for her thrillers. Beginning in 1932, Heyer released one romance novel and one thriller each year.

Heyer was an intensely private person who remained a best selling author all her life without the aid of publicity. She made no appearances, never gave an interview and only answered fan letters herself if they made an interesting historical point. She sometimes wrote under the pseudonym Stella Martin.

Her Regencies were inspired by Jane Austen, but unlike Austen, who wrote about and for the times in which she lived, Heyer was forced to include copious information about the period so that her readers would understand the setting. While some critics thought her novels were too detailed, others considered the level of detail to be Heyer's greatest asset.

Heyer remains a popular and much-loved author, known for essentially establishing the historical romance genre and its subgenre Regency romance.